title: Intermediate and paratenic hosts in the life cycle of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus in natural environment.
abstract: The cat lungworm Aelurostrongylus abstrusus affects the domestic cats and other felids all over the world. Feline aelurostrongylosis is of importance in clinical feline medicine. Snails and slugs are the intermediate hosts, but the cat is probably infected by eating paratenic hosts, e.g., rodents, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Herein we present the first finding of A. abstrusus in a naturally infected invasive synantropic slugs Arion lusitanicus (intermediate host) and wild living rodents Apodemus agrarius (paratenic host). The results confirm the usefulness of molecular approaches for investigating the biology, ecology and epidemiology of A. abstrusus, the agent of feline aelurostrongylosis.
authors.affiliation: W. Stefański Institute of Parasitology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: jezw@twarda.pan.pl.
authors.forename: Witold
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jeżewski
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Buńkowska-Gawlik
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hildebrand
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perec-Matysiak
authors.forename: Zdzisław
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Laskowski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000635:transmission; D002415:Cats; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D007814:Larva; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008681:Metastrongyloidea / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012377:Rodentia / Q000469:parasitology; D012908:Snails / Q000469:parasitology; D017206:Strongylida Infections / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary*
chemical_list: D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV
keywords: Aelurostrongylus abstrusus; Apodemus agrarius; Arion lusitanicus; Intermediate host; Metastrongyloidea; Paratenic host